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Allegiance (episode)
Captain Picard and three other people are abducted and imprisoned by an unknown force and replaced by duplicates. Summary Captain Picard is reading in his room when he is transported away to an unknown room. An unknown energy source is detected on the bridge and a security team is sent to the captain's quarters. As they attempt to open the door, they find the captain at the door. The real captain finds himself in a black holding cell with lights and with two others, a Starfleet Bolian female ensign named Mitena Haro, and Kova Tholl, a Mizarian. The "captain" running the ''Enterprise'' is a replacement of some type, but still seems to have all of the memories and experiences of Picard. His behavior, however, is somehow unusual for the captain. It is subtle, but his demeanor has changed, he is more outgoing yet emotionless. His actions become more and more unusual as time passes. He orders the crew to stop their course, and head towards a well-studied pulsar at a very slow speed. The crew does not understand this but follows orders. Meanwhile in the holding cell, Picard takes charge of the situation and attempts to find a way out. Tholl believes in peaceful non-resistance; his homeworld has been conquered a number of times. Because of this he refuses to help in escape and in fact tries to convince the others to stop trying. He states that he tried once earlier and recieved an extremely painful punishment. Ensign Haro is willing to do whatever Picard says. Back on the ship, the Picard replacement stops in at the poker game and asks La Forge to increase the efficiency of the warp drive from 93% to 95%. This is the first time he has ever stopped in for a poker game. He asks to speak with Troi and when outside asks if the crew is suspicious of his actions in any way. She reminds him that such changes are not unusual and that she will tell him if they become distrustful. The conversation itself is rather odd and just a bit suspicious in and of itself. The real Picard in the holding cell still tries to find his way out when a Chalnoth, Esoqq, appears. The Chalnoth becomes extremely angry and pulls out a large knife, the captain is able to calm him down by saying that he has visited Esoqq's homeworld. Esoqq finds that he is incapable of eating the food tablet that the other three are able to eat. He is already quick to violence but he says that he can go only three to four days without food, but no more. He then eyes Tholl hungrily. The replacement captain on the ship then gets a physical and is in perfect health, Dr. Crusher does not understand why Picard would need a physical as he was not due for a checkup in a month, and normally he hates physicals. Picard then invites Crusher to dinner in his quarters. In the holding cell, Esoqq uses his knife to smash a panel. Haro tries to rig the door open. The door opens a crack, and then Picard, Esoqq, and Haro are punished by a painful green light. At this point, they begin to accuse each other. Esoqq acuses Tholl of being the enemy because he refused to help and seemed to sit there observing them, he claimed he was peaceful. The remainder of the attack was directed toward Picard because he was ordering them all around all the time. Haro vouched for him by citing some of the battles Picard had participated in. On the Enterprise, Crusher is having dinner with the replacement Picard. She tells Picard that she knows that something is on his mind and he says he wants a more intimate relationship. They talk about their duty and how both their jobs require professional distance. She then askes him to dance, Crusher thought that Picard didn't dance, he responds, only on special occasions. He then kisses her, Crusher gets the feeling that something is odd and asks if she is being played. Picard calls it a night and shows her the door. After clearing up some the conflicts in the holding cell, they all decide that it would be better to work together than to bicker about whose fault it was. They attempt to open the door agian by working together. This time they succeed, but behind the door, there is just a wall of metal. Troi and Riker are sitting in Ten Forward talking about the unusual acts of the captain. Picard walks into Ten Forward and buys ale for everyone there. He then sings a song with everyone. Riker becomes increasingly suspicious. The crew all meets together to discuss Picard's odd behavior. They are concerned but there is not enough cause for mutiny. The next move is his. Picard then moves the ship dangerously close to the pulsar, so close that their shields will only last 18 minutes. Picard then orders them to move even closer, which would almost certainly destroy the ship. Riker talks to Picard in his ready room and Picard suggests that Riker has been under a lot of stress and should get a physical. Once again, Picard orders to move closer, this time, Riker takes control of the ship. Picard orders Worf to remove Riker, but Worf does not budge. Riker orders the ship away from the pulsar. In the holding cell, the prisoners are depressed and confused. Picard realizes and says to everyone that the entire thing had been an elaborate test to see how everyone acts under leadership. Tholl was completely passive, Esoqq refused to follow most orders and would readily threaten others. Ensign Haro would follow almost any order, and of course Picard as a trained captain tried to take control of the situation. He noted that only the Chalnoth was unable to eat the food, a tactic to put them under pressure. He also noted that all their tasks were especially designed to require the help of all of them to complete and that once they completed a task, there was another one behind it. He knew that it was actually Haro who was the enemy because when defending Picard's reputation, she cited a war example that was classified, one that no ensign could know. The ensign immediatly morphed into an alien and explained that it was true and they were studying leadership, and Picard's knowledge of the experiment would taint the results. The real Picard was transported to his ship and the fake one was revealed as a sort of replica, they were able to even clone the thoughts and experiences of Picard, though it clearly wasn't perfect. The Picard clone had been testing how far his crew would follow him, even to death. The real Picard gave his crew a subtle signal that let them know that he wanted the aliens to be trapped in a force field. When they were trapped, they became afraid, Picard reminded them that imprisonment is its own harm and that they should rethink the morality of their experiments, and that the Federation had the ability to trap them again. Picard set them free and they transported away. Picard asked how they knew it was a replica and Riker explained that he didn't know that he could sing that well. Crusher then sat next to him and glanced at him in a flirtacious manner, which made Picard very uncomfortable as they returned to their normal course. Background Information *The song that the fake Picard sings in Ten Forward with the crew is called "Heart of Oak." Links and References Guest Stars *Reiner Schone as Esoqq *Joycelyn O'Brien as Mitena Haro *Stephen Markle as Kova Tholl *Jerry Rector as Alien #1 *Jeff Rector as Alien #2 References Browder IV; Cor Caroli V; Chalnoth; Mizar, Mizarians; Lonka Cluster; Phyrox plague; Ordek Nebula; Mintaka III Category:TNG episodes de:Versuchskaninchen nl:Allegiance